First off, Valerie Dore is not a woman. Valerie Dore is a project. Not even a band. Members and singers changed with every successive release, causing some confusion about who or what Valerie Dore was/is.
In 1982 Italian model Monica Stucchi, born in Monte Carlo of French and Italian decent, was recruited by Italo producer Roberto Gasparini to front his group Valerie Dore. Based on the minor keyed, slow rhythm dance sound of bands like Gazebo and Savage (whose famous hit, "Don't Cry Tonight" was recently given new life on the Pet Shop Boys Back To Mine compilation), Valerie Dore's first single, "The Night" became a sensation in Europe. It has all the Italo trademarks: poorly enunciated english vocals sung slightly out-of-tune, with those mellow synths and handclaps.
The song wasn't actually sung by Stucchi, it was sung by a famous Italo singer named Dora Carofiglio (she sang the classic vocal line on Answering Service's Italo-rap hit "Call Me Mr. Telephone", "Funky Is On" by Funky Family, "You Got My Soul" by Domina and served as lead singer of Novacento). Stucchi, who lip-synched the song "live" made the group more famous however for her eccentric dancing and costuming (think early '80's Madonna with a distinctly Roman nose stealing from Kate Bush's interpretive dance playbook.)
Not satisfied with a single hit, Gasparini and his partners Lino, Nino and Ross Nicolosi used nearly the exact same music arrangement and added new lyrics to create the song "Get Closer", this time sung by both Carofiglio and Stucchi.
"Get Closer" is the pinnacle of the Romantic Dancing Italo sub-genre. Other great Romantic Dancing tunes would follow (most notably Katy Gray's "Hold Me Tight"), but the influence of Valerie Dore's "Get Closer" can still be felt today in the work of modern Italo artists like Sally Shapiro and Cloetta Paris.
The song was recently checked in the recent Royksopp Back To Mine, but even before that, and the homages given by Shapiro and Paris, artists have been playing around with it's sound.
In 2001 Play Paul (né Paul de Homem-Christo, that's right, the brother of Guy de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk) released a deep French-house track called "Spaced Out" on Guy's Crydamoure label, which samples extensively from "Get Closer". So much so, in fact, I like to mark the beginning of the modern age of the Re-Edit with it's release. It is cut into so many small chunks and put back together in crazy ways, but the basics of the tune, the hand claps, the crying synths are all still there; just with crazy sped-up french house beats.
Then, in 2003, trance group Master Blaster used extensive samples of the vocal track, sped up to Minnie Mouse-esque heights, in it's own song called "Get Closer" on their We Love Italo album.
Since then, white labels of the original have been released, it's been name checked and dropped into sets by Italo artisans like Johan Argebjorn and DJ I-F as well as being paid homage by other nouveau Italo bands, like Chromatics and Glass Candy.
So every time you hear mellow sighing synths played with a bit of glide, handclaps, and female vocals, with short lilting verses you know who to thank.
Valerie Dore.
Here's a snippet of Valerie Dore (fronted by Monica Stucchi) performing "Get Closer".
Valerie Dore - The Night (Original Mix)
Valerie Dore - Get Closer (Vocal Mix)
Play Paul - Spaced Out (Xtended Mix)
Master Blaster - Get Closer
5 comments:
Wow, they went ultra-heavy on the Reverb, and it doesn't surprise me. I know I have something, or more, of hers in my collection somewhere but, that was always, just in case. I personally, never got into her, his or, their music. Never saw the video though, that was pretty interesting. :)
Great post! The Get Closer cover is one of my faves. It really gives a feeling of the record, the hazy warm sunlight washing over her...
Terry, I know this is super-cheeky of me but I was wondering if you'd be good enough to email me the last 2 tracks at lulu500_99@yahoo.co.uk? After the last of my 2 recent PC melt-downs, which I discovered occured after clicking a Zshare link (not one from here I might add!*!), I decided against clicking for files on download services, but alreday having the 2 Valarie Dore tracks, I'm intrigued to hear the other 2. I apologise for this cheeky request, but if you could see your way to helping me out I'd be super grateful
Cheers
Scott
Great post Terry! Timely too, as I've totally gotten hooked on Valerie Dore lately. I saw the video of "The Night" on YouTube and was capivated by the song and the awkward interpretive dancing lol.. Thanks for the files, I've had them on constant play on my iPod lately.. I'll definitely be getting the best of Valerie Dore CD now.. The Play Paul and Master Blaster references/remakes are awesome too!
Mmmm, Valerie Dore.
When I was about 11-12, I had a huge poster of Samantha Fox, where she kneeled on top of some dead animal's fur, with her pearl necklace disappearing between her main assets.
I was maybe too young to picture her being as 'sexy' as she probably was/is/whatever, but in my mind back then I thought of her as a glorious "creature", for a lack of a better word. She was mysterious, glowing, sweet, and I loved her songs.
The point of the story: when I heard Valerie Dore's songs for the first time, the feeling and the mystique reminded of my experience with Samantha Fox and the poster.
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